Nick Solak Has Forced His Way Into the Rangers' Lineup
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers were able to even the series against the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night with a 4-2 win to improve to 7-9 on the season.
The bullpen produced another good outing, highlighted by Joely Rodríguez, Jonathan Hernández, and Rafael Montero combining for four perfect innings to slam the door on the Mariners.
Even in victory, the offense is still a work in progress. They produced four runs on the night, but only one of their seven hits was for extra bases—a lead-off double in the fourth inning by Isiah Kiner-Falefa.
Outfielder Nick Solak, one of the Rangers' brightest young hitters, drove in three of the four runs for the Rangers. He went 3-for-4 on the night, tying his career-high for hits in a game. They were all singles, but it doesn't always take a home run to drive in runs and win ball games.
"The more ways you can win a game, the more games you are going to win," Solak said. "We are not always going to hit home runs but we can string together good at-bats, get guys on base and get timely hitting. An offense clicks when you are putting together good at-bats and not necessarily relying on home runs."
Solak earned a spot in the Rangers' lineup with Willie Calhoun nursing an injury at the beginning of the season. Despite a slow start, Solak has remained in the lineup consistently throughout the first 16 games of the season. He's especially turned it on as of late, batting .333 (11-for-33) with three doubles and five RBIs over the past nine games.
With the constant shuffling of the lineup to try to find ways to manufacture runs, Solak has forced the hand of Rangers manager Chris Woodward to keep him in the lineup.
"He wasn’t crushing balls in camp, but he was just—the grit and the grind, he was just finding a way to get hits strictly out of battle mode," Woodward said. "I knew that eventually once he got his timing and his swing clicked, that he would start to do some damage. That’s kind of where we’re at right now. Absolutely, he’s forced his way into the lineup.”
Not nearly on the same level as Angels outfielder Jo Adell, but Nick Solak has been near the center of attention in recent days after Adell deflected Solak's fly ball over the fence for a home-run-turned-four-base-error. The Rangers appealed the ruling, but Major League Baseball officially upheld the decision on Tuesday, thus leaving Solak still searching for homer No. 1 in 2020.
"In all honesty, as soon as it got changed to an error, I had a gut feeling that it was going to stay an error," Solak laughed. "Scoring can be weird. People can argue and argue both sides of it all day long. At the end of the day, a four-base error and we won the game, it's time to move on. I'm sure I'll see that highlight forever. I guess it's cool that I can say, 'They took a homer away and I got a four-base error.' It is what it is."
At the moment, there isn't much competition to push Solak out of the lineup. However, when Danny Santana returns from his injury, Chris Woodward will have some shuffling to do if he wants to keep Solak's bat in the lineup permanently. Solak is a versatile defender who can play any of the three spots in the outfield. He can also play second base and he even got some reps at first base during camp. If Rougned Odor continues to struggle as much as he has, Solak could give Woodward no choice but to ride the hot hand.
If Solak continues this trend with his bat, that decision might have to be made sooner or later. It also might not be too much longer before he sends a ball over the fence without the aid of an outfielder's glove.
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